


Stories spun on prison walls

by Hllangel



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 15:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hllangel/pseuds/Hllangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even Steve cannot resist the temptation to daydream in order to fill the hours he's spending in solitary confinement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stories spun on prison walls

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [The New Pub](http://thenewpub.livejournal.com/), Round 2, August 13, 2011

Steve's been trained to withstand torture and not reveal anything. But he's in prison in the states, so it's not waterboarding he's concerned with, it's how to pass the 23 hours of solitary every day.

He's been forced to hide in small places before, so while his six-by-eight cell isn't exactly a worst-case-scenario, it doesn't give him much room to even stretch, so he runs for pretty much the entire time he gets to spend outside his concrete cell every day.

In the beginning, he keeps up his fitness by also doing as many pushups and situps as he can (which kills hours of time) but even that can't kill a whole day. He's not allowed paper or pens, no books, nothing but his very simple clothing and the prison blankets.

So he starts by wondering how everyone else is getting on without him. He imagines watching Kono head out to Pipeline, seeing Chin as he comes back from a loop around the island on his bike. He sees Danny tucking Grace into bed on Saturday night, telling her stories, talking softly until she falls asleep.

The story the Danno-in-his-head is telling is vaguely familiar to Steve. It's one that he's heard before, but he can't quite place it and he has no way of writing it down to remember it, so with his eyes still closed he starts tapping out the words on the wall, in morse code.

He's not transcribing it, exactly, but it's enough that the story stays with him. He imagines that he'll one day tell it to Grace, and he'll try to hide where he came up with it from Danny, because he's not immune to the fact that it's just a bit creepy that he's imagining _watching me put my daughter to bed from solitary, Steven._

If he was there in person, Danny would creep out of the room, shutting the door behind him making as little noise as possible, which is odd for someone as generally loud as Danny, and Steve thinks it's charming, the way his whole ... _everything_ changes for Grace.

Steve will pass him a beer and they'll go out onto the lanai, because in Steve's fantasy they're at his house, and Grace has her own room to stay in on the weekends or whenever else she can, and it's perfectly fine by now, so Danny doesn't even protest that he should carry her out to the car and take her home because _this is normal_ now. This is what they do, even though Danny complains too much about Steve's choice in diet (Gracie sides with Steve) or his insane exercise habits, or his tendency to keep live ordnance under the sink or his inability to talk things through, ever. ("It's ok, Danno. You talk enough for the both of us," which earns Steve a slap to the head.)

He was never very good at talking, and so even in his mind he falls back on morse code to tell Danny how he really feels. The first time Steve does it, Danny never notices the pattern, because the quick kisses lead to longer ones, to more long, lingering kisses punctuated by the short ones.

And years later, he'll tell Danno what those first kisses meant, what he was saying, and his Danno will look at him and sigh, "Only you, Steven." before kissing him again.

**Author's Note:**

> "I love you" in morse code: .. .-..---...-. -.-----..-


End file.
